Race heats up for Patrick the BIO governor
Maryland outlines $1.1b plan to boost life sciences, much like the Bay State's
SAN DIEGO - As Governor Deval Patrick promotes his $1 billion life sciences initiative at the world's biggest biotechnology convention, Maryland is raising the ante in the race to attract cutting-edge companies and their high-paying jobs.
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley this week unveiled a $1.1 billion plan to buoy his state's life sciences industry over the next decade. O'Malley's aides called it the largest investment in biosciences per capita of any state in the country, outpacing the Massachusetts initiative, California's $3 billion stem cell-research program, and Texas's $3 billion bet on cancer research.
Though O'Malley detailed the proposal at a university research center in Maryland, he plans to travel to the Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in San Diego this week to promote it in person.
Maryland's move underscores growing competition for life sciences companies, across the country and worldwide. Dozens of states and countries have flocked to this year's BIO 2008 convention to try to attract businesses. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend the show, including four dozen state and local officials from Massachusetts.
"We are sales people for Massachusetts," said state Senate President Therese Murray, standing alongside House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi after a breakfast event with Massachusetts biotech executives yesterday.
Murray dismissed Maryland's initiative, noting that Massachusetts' $1 billion plan was signed into law on Monday. "We're ready to go," she said. "Maryland is going to have to catch up."
Patrick, honored as BIO's governor of the year for his work to promote and nurture the state's biotech industry, told attendees yesterday that the $1 billion investment will create thousands of jobs. In the past, the governor has raised eyebrows by predicting the law would create 250,000 jobs in a decade, but he shied away from giving specific numbers at BIO. He also cautioned that the jobs won't materialize overnight.
"We are making an investment over the long term," Patrick said in a lunchtime keynote discussion with former Florida governor Jeb Bush. "We don't expect a result instantaneously."
But Patrick also noted the state's bet on biotech holds the hope of treating diseases such as diabetes. "It's about the potential to advance human healing," he said.
Not everyone is so supportive. Some conservative lawmakers and public policy groups have questioned the wisdom of steering so much government money to selected companies, instead of broader initiatives to help all businesses. And leaders in some other Massachusetts industries, such as high technology, sometimes complain that the state focuses on life sciences at their expense.
In an interview, Patrick argued the high-tech industry would benefit from the $1 billion proposal as well, because biotech firms rely heavily on sophisticated technology to map DNA and make discoveries. "High-tech enables everything we are talking about," Patrick said.
As part of the life sciences initiative, Massachusetts has pledged $250 million in tax incentives to help companies expand, $500 million to build research labs and other public facilities (much of it earmarked for the state's university system), and $250 million for a mix of grants, fellowships, and other programs to boost the industry.
Like Massachusetts, Maryland aims to distribute its money to various projects. The proposal calls for spending $222 million to expand the state's biotech investment tax credit, $92 million to start a biotechnology center, $152 million to increase the state's venture funds, and $300 million for sciences, research and technology initiatives, as well as millions to help commercialize academic or government research, and incubators to help start-ups and other programs.
Joshua Boger, chief executive of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cambridge biotech company, cautioned that it is difficult to compare the two states' initiatives based solely on the numbers. But Boger said Massachusetts' plan is superior to California's $3 billion initiative, because California's is more narrowly focused on supporting stem cell research and academic research centers.
"It's not the number. It's how it's spent," he said. "It's very important to see how these things are structured. Other states are going to have a hard time beating Massachusetts."
Nevertheless, Boger said, Vertex is seriously considering moving its headquarters out of Massachusetts as it searches for places to expand. As of late last year, Vertex had close to 1,200 employees, including 950 in Massachusetts. The company has been hiring aggressively as it prepares to launch a potential billion-dollar drug to treat hepatitis C.
Boger said the company has been approached by officials from other states and countries and thought it was prudent to look elsewhere.
"If it wasn't a possibility, we wouldn't be doing it," he said.
Though he acknowledged it would be difficult to move 1,000-plus employees, he said it would be even more challenging to move later, when the company is larger. "This is an opportune time for us. We're at this transition point where we know we are going to be growing very rapidly," he said.
Vertex has also been looking at sites in Massachusetts, including Cambridge and Boston's Fan Pier district.
Gregory Bialecki, the state's undersecretary of business development, said Vertex hasn't approached the state about tax incentives or other help, noting the $1 billion life sciences plan just became law. But Patrick says he frequently talks to Boger about Vertex's expansion as part of his efforts to bring biotech jobs to Massachusetts.
Todd Wallack can be reached at twallack@globe.com. 